A's Undaunted by Task Of Facing Yanks, Clemens

Susan Slusser, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Monday, April 5, 1999

Those A's kids get thrown in the deep end today as the baseball season gets underway.

Their Opening Night task is the most unenviable in the league: Oakland opens up with the world champion New York Yankees, winners of 114 regular-season games last year, and their new star attraction, five-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens.

The A's won 40 fewer games last season than the team they'll face at 7:35 tonight at the Oakland Coliseum. But with all the confidence of youth, A's rookie third baseman Eric Chavez is raring to go.

"I'm so excited to face Roger Clemens," the 21-year-old said. "I've been watching him for so many years, and for some reason last year every time Ben (Grieve) swung the bat against him, I couldn't wait to get up here and face him."

Originally, the A's thought they would face David Wells in the season opener, but then the Yankees traded the left-hander to Toronto for Clemens at the start of the spring, and Chavez had to rethink a boast he'd made to his brother, Casey.

"I told my brother I was going to homer in the first game against Wells, but with Roger, I don't know if that prediction will hold," Chavez said, grinning. "But I'd much rather be facing Roger."

All the A's might feel that way: The lefty- laden team has fared better against Clemens in the past, winning 12 of 25 decisions against

him, while Wells has dominated Oakland of late, going 2-0 with an ERA under 0.50 the past two seasons.

"Shoot, why not? Last year, we opened with Pedro Martinez and this year we get Clemens," outfielder/DH Matt Stairs said. "Of course he's going to be pumped up, because he has a new situation and a new team, but there's no pressure on us. . . . We're not expected to go out and beat the Yankees. So we'll just go out and swing hard, because if you fall asleep against us, we're gonna score 14 or 15 runs."

"We should do well, because we're stacked with left-handers," said veteran Tony Phillips, who will start at second base tonight. "At least I'd like to think so."

But no one really wants to take on the Yankees these days. They set an American League record with their win total last year, they have their entire starting lineup back and they added Clemens, the most dominant pitcher of the era.

"The Yankees are a tough team for anyone to start off with, especially with Clemens," said A's outfielder Tim Raines, who played for the Yankees the past three years and has two championship rings to show for it. "But I don't see anything different than any other team we'd play -- because we're such a young team, we'll have to play hard against everyone every day."

That is particularly true throughout April. The Yankees are fittingly the first in what shapes up as a challenging month. Also on the schedule: the other two division winners from a year ago, Texas and Cleveland, along with Albert Belle and the Orioles and one of the AL West favorites, the Anaheim Angels.

"I think the first month it's imperative for us to play .500," Stairs said. "If we do that and bear down against Seattle, Anaheim and Texas, we'll be sitting pretty good."

"We'll get a real good feel for where we are the first month, but it's not going to dictate our season," catcher Mike Macfarlane said.

Oakland, which has finished in last place two years in a row and starts five players with a year of experience or less, will be without ace Kenny Rogers; the onetime Yankee missed much of the spring with elbow tenderness and won't start until Friday at Seattle. Gil Heredia, slated to be the No. 4 starter, gets the call instead; the right-hander threw 7 2/3 scoreless innings in the A's 2-0 victory at New York on September 2.

"I've been excited ever since they let me know, and it just keeps escalating," said Heredia, who is 22-24 in his career compared to Clemens' mark of 233-124.

Phillips is equally psyched up, not least of all because of the caliber of the opposition. 'It's gonna be fun," he said. "It's always exciting to play the best, and they're world champions. Who do you want to play? Arizona State? You've got Roger Clemens on the mound, you've got ESPN -- what more can you ask for? This is what it's all about."